“Oh, sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise. By mountains pil'd on mountains to the skies? Heav'n still with laughter the vain toil surveys, And buries madmen in the heaps they raise.” StillsEarthSkySonMountainAmbitionLaughterRaisesVainToilMadmenSurveysMy Ambition Book:The Works of Alexander Pope Esq Source: The Works of Alexander Pope Esq
“Information wants to be free.' So goes the saying. Stewart Brand, the founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, seems to have said it first.I say that information doesn't deserve to be free.Cybernetic totalists love to think of the stuff as if it were alive and had its own ideas and ambitions. But what if information is inanimate? What if it's even less than inanimate, a mere artifact of human thought? What if only humans are real, and information is not?...Information is alienated experience.” IfsThinkingWantFirstsHumansSaidIdeasRealWholeSeemsEarthStuffAliveInformationAmbitionDeserveMereBrandsWhat IfFoundersArtifactsHuman Thought Book:You Are Not a Gadget Source: You Are Not a Gadget
“If people in their 20s had more death awareness, would that in fact temper their ambition or drive? My hunch is yes. It would certainly do something for those who are most ruthless, who tend to make others most miserable. Some sort of greater awareness of their own finiteness and what their time on earth really is, and what they really want to do with their lives, could help improve them.” PeopleIfsWantFactsHelpingEarthGreaterAwarenessAmbitionMiserableTemperRuthlessHunchesTime On Earth Author:Irvin D. Yalom